Manga: Professor Munakata’s British Museum adventure

The Asahi Shimbun Displays

5 November 2009 – 3 January 2010
Room 3
Admission free

Japan’s leading manga artist Hoshino Yukinobu creates a
new exclusive manga inspired by the British Museum’s world
collections.

Manga is a Japanese comic book art form which has become an
international phenomenon in recent years. Cheap to produce, Manga
is an appealing and flexible medium that engages the viewer-reader
in stories in a uniquely affecting manner. Originating in Japan,
manga are now being published worldwide. Many different audiences
read manga, and there are manga for both children and adults.

Hoshino Yukinobu (b. 1954) is a leading Japanese manga artist.
One of his most popular characters is Professor Munakata, who
investigates history and folklore in his manga adventures. Hoshino
has been inspired by his engagement with the British Museum and its
collections to create a new manga in which his popular character
Professor Munakata, a professor of folklore at the fictional Tōa
Bunka University, embarks on adventures in the Museum
galleries.

Hoshino Yukinobu first created Professor Munakata in 1990. Now,
every two weeks, millions of readers in Japan eagerly follow the
professor’s latest adventures in the manga magazine Big
Comic. In October, Hoshino Yukinobu made his first visit to
the British Museum. While here he created three ink drawings
showing Professor Munakata’s most recent encounters with treasures
of the ancient past.

Room 3 will feature scenes of past adventures which introduce
visitors to the world of Professor Munakata whilst new drawings
will highlight his most recent encounters with iconic treasures at
the British Museum. Visitors will also be able to browse Japanese
manga books in a setting which evokes a ‘manga coffee shop’, or
manga kissa, in the corner of the room – a perfect way to
discover more about the art of manga.

Hoshino plans to return next year to create a series of new
episodes based on Professor Munakata’s adventures at the British
Museum. They will feature his encounters with more of the Museum’s
most iconic objects, as he delves into their mysteries. Mr Hoshino
plans to publish the full series of British Museum adventures in
both Japanese and English translation.

The British Museum is building representative collections to
chart the phenomenon of manga from its origins in the Edo period
(1600–1868) until the present. Small selections, including original
manga artworks, are always included in the displays about modern
Japan in the Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese
Galleries.

Asahi Shimbun Displays
The Asahi Shimbun Displays are a series of regularly changing
displays which look at objects in new or different ways. These
displays have been made possible by the generous sponsorship of The
Asahi Shimbun Company, who are long standing supporters of the
British Museum, and have a century long tradition of staging
exhibitions in Japan of art, culture and history from around the
world.

Accompanying events:

There will be a series of free gallery talks at 13.15 in Room
3, starting with an introduction to the works of Manga master
Hoshino Yukinobu by Paul Gravett, author and Director of Comica, on
Tuesday 10 November 2009.

Manga and animé expert and author Helen McCarthy selects her
favourite episodes of the televised adaptation of Astroboy based on
the manga series by Osama Tezuka. Astroboy was the first Japanese
television series to embody the aesthetic that later became known
as anime. Saturday 21 November, 14.30, Stevenson Lecture Theatre,
Free, booking advised

A family event: Manga create a comic workshop is scheduled for
Saturday 12 December, 12.30, 14.00 & 15.30, Room 3. Discover
the dazzling world of Japanese comic book art (manga) with an
exhibition tour and digital workshop. Sessions last about 75
minutes. Free, booking advised

Room 91: The power of dogu: ceramic figures from
ancient Japan This exhibition highlights the beauty
and power of remarkable ceramic figures known as dogū,
mysterious masterpieces that were produced in great numbers in
prehistoric Japan. This free exhibition is on display from 10
September – 22 November 2009.

Room 94: Excerpts from a recent work by
Hoshino Yukinobu (b. 1954) will be on display in Room 94. The
imaginative work brings the world of dogūand the Jōmon period to
life.

The Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries Rooms
92–94: For more Japanese objects in the Museum’s
collection, visit Rooms 92–94 where Japanese history and culture is
explored from prehistory to the present.

Acknowledgments:Hoshino Yukinobu
Shōgakukan Inc.
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures
Acknowledgment
Additional support provided by Japan Airlines